International Space Station experiment explores fire in micro-gravity

Say what you will about the International Space Station (ISS), but it seems like it’s being put to good use. One of the currently running experiments is taking a look at how fire burns in micro-gravity, and how to create extinguishing substances to create a safer environment for future space voyages. Called Project Flex (Flame Extinguishment Experiment), the video above depicts the experiment in action, which is run from the ground using cameras and telemetry.

Researchers on Earth control robotic arms that release small droplets of flammable materials, such as heptane or methanol, that are then ignited and studied. There has been some interesting results of these experiments, including the fact that some of the material remains burning after the flames have been put out. There is no explanation for this phenomenon, but scientists are working hard on coming up with an answer.

Because there is very little gravity on board the ISS, the burning chemicals don’t spread out like they do on Earth. They remain suspended, floating in the air, causing the fire to burn simultaneously on all of its sides. The burning halo effect is an interesting one to watch. Putting the space-borne fires out is more complex than on the ground, as they use oxygen at a slower rate because of the absence of gravity. On Earth, as you know, hot gasses can rise away from the fire source, which works to draw oxygen back into the flames to continue to feed the conflagration. As you have probably deduced, this doesn’t happen in space, because weight has no bearing on substances. Fire therefore relies on molecular diffusion to continue to burn. This is a much slower process than terrestrial-based fires, so in essence space fires burn slower.

The FLEX experiments have been ongoing for the past year, and will continue on through 2012. Some of the benefits that have come out of the project are the development of a denser extinguishing material suitable to put flames out during a space voyage as well as the recreation of what happens inside a combustion engine. This is done to try to study ways to make engines burn fuel cleaner and more efficiently.

I for one would like to see them experiment with cooking barbecue over the slow burning droplets, it looks like it would be the perfect environment!